Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.

Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.

Don't show me this message again

The Lost Chord

Introduction

Arthur Sullivan composed this moving example of Victorian faith after being confined to the bedside of his elder brother Frederic during his last illness. The words were by the poetess Adelaide Anne Procter, and the song was carried to popularity in Victorian Britain by the singer Antoinette Stirling. Its huge popularity is demonstrated by the fact that it was even sung by Caruso, who wrote out the words in Italian phonetics for the purpose.

Recordings

'If these ardent renderings … do not find a place in your heart then you should wonder what your heart's made of' (Classic FM Magazine)'Hyperion are to be congratulated on their courage in issuing this charming collection of songs which might be classified as an endangered species. Wa ...» More

'A persuasive case for the often sublime artistry of the humble parlour song … I found no trouble at all in listening to in continuously from sta ...'Thomas Allen recalls happy evenings round the family piano and offers this well sung collection, which will strike a lost chord with many' (BBC Music ...» More

This latest release from the multi-award-winning partnership of Gerald Finley and Julius Drake features a literary and musical form which inspired the greatest voices of German Romanticism. The foremost poets and composers of the age saw the balla ...» More

Seated one day at the organ, I was weary and ill-at-ease; And my fingers wandered idly Over the noisy keys.

I know not what I was playing Or what I was dreaming then, But I struck one chord of music Like the sound of a great Amen.

It flooded the crimson twilight Like the close of an angel’s psalm, And it lay on my fevered spirit With a touch of infinite calm.

It quieted pain and sorrow Like love overcoming strife; It seemed the harmonious echo From our discordant life.

It linked all perplexed meanings Into one perfect peace, And trembled away into silence As if it were loth to cease.

I have sought, but I seek it vainly, That one lost chord divine, Which came from the soul of the organ And entered into mine.

It may be that death’s bright angel Will speak in that chord again; It may be that only in heav’n I shall hear that grand Amen.

Adelaide Anne Proctor (1825-1864)

No English ballad has been so mercilessly sent-up as Sullivan’s The Lost Chord, composed as Sullivan’s actor-singer brother Fred (who, inter alia, created the role of the Judge in Trial by Jury) lay dying early in 1877. As a reaction against all things Victorian set in after World War One, the sub-Tennysonian sentimentality of Adelaide Anne Procter’s text, and a melodic idiom comfortably rooted in the Anglican choir stalls, seemed fair game for the lampooners. Yet in a sincere and sympathetic performance, this ballad—made famous by Antoinette Stirling, Clara Butt and Caruso (who sang it at the Metropolitan Opera in 1912 at a concert in aid of the victims of the Titanic disaster)—has a touching fervour, rising through the troubled minor-keyed harmonies of the penultimate verse to the majestic final peroration.